


He Who Pulls the Trigger

by geeelatinnn



Category: SixTONES (Band)
Genre: Death, Fluff, Fluff maybe?, Light Angst, M/M, Someone dies, again someone will die
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:28:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25505935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/geeelatinnn/pseuds/geeelatinnn
Summary: He looked at his naked self in the mirror. No matter how many times or how long he bathes he knew in himself that he would still be dirty, he still sees himself as dirty. The path he chose to walk on was something he could no longer walk away from.
Relationships: Kyomoto Taiga/Tanaka Juri
Comments: 8
Kudos: 6





	He Who Pulls the Trigger

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I hope you enjoy what you are about to read. This is just another product of one sleepless night that I just had to finish thinking it makes good material. This is very raw as I never showed it to anyone else before posting so expect some typo errors along the way.
> 
> Thank you for taking time to read this. Again, I hope you enjoy what's coming

**Part One**

Juri woke up at the sound of an annoying alarm he couldn’t recognize, he groaned in his bed out of frustration. He wanted to roll over to reach the nightstand beside his bed where the alarm clock would possibly be but something was blocking him, opening his eyes he found himself sandwiched between Hokuto and Jesse on his bed. Both of them sleeping soundly seemingly unbothered with how little space the three of them had in Juri’s bed. Juri couldn’t quite figure out what annoyed him more now, the sound of the alarm clock or the fact that the reason his back hurt was because of the two trespassers on his bed.

Hokuto’s face scrunched up and he reached around until he had his phone in his hand. As he sat up he noticed Juri was already awake, staring up at the ceiling of his room. “I’m sorry, Juri. Did my alarm wake you up?”

“Seriously Hokuto you need to change that annoying tone!” Jesse complained as he shifted his position to turn his back against Juri and Hokuto. “Especially when it doesn’t even work in waking you up!”

“What the hell are you two doing in my bed? How did you get here?” Juri said annoyance clearly in his tone.

Jesse and Hokuto both got off the bed as fast as they could and went near the door, knowing fully well how Juri was not exactly a morning person, and considering that he was the best at what they do, they both feared for what attack Juri could throw at them this early.

“We didn’t have a place to crash last night considering that we were dead tired from work.” Jesse said. “Your house was really near the area where we did our job so we decided to stay here. You were already asleep so we didn’t bother to wake you up.”

“And now we’re leaving! See you around!” Hokuto and Jesse both left his room in a hurry.

Juri checked his schedule: he had nothing scheduled up until his briefing later. He took his time soaking in his bathtub, relaxing and cleaning his body up. He looked at his naked self in the mirror. No matter how many times or how long he bathes he knew in himself that he would still be dirty, he still sees himself as dirty. The path he chose to walk on was something he could no longer walk away from.

******

Juri went to his usual café. Remembering his assignment for tonight, he decided to head for the library to read up about musicals as it was a field that he was not familiar with too much.

Not many people were at the library and the section for books about musicals was even more deserted. Juri honestly had no idea which book he should start with, it didn't really matter as he just needed to know enough about musicals to make small talk. His brows furrowed as he read, he didn't bother to sit on a chair yet as he changed from one book to another trying to find one that would make sense to him. He returned the book with a heavy sigh, getting a little frustrated when he was at the fourth book he took out.

Somebody chuckled a few steps away from him. He turned to see if it was directed at him or not.

"I'm sorry." A blond lean boy not too shorter than him said. "It's just… if you're not that familiar with musicals, maybe this book would be better for you." The stranger pulled out a book from the shelf and handed it to him.

"Thanks… I guess." Juri said as he reached for the book.

"I'm Kyomoto Taiga by the way. If you'd need help I'm just at a desk over there," he pointed to the second floor.

"Okay." Juri was thinking if he should give a fake name to this seemingly innocent stranger. "I'm sorry but I'm just not the type of person to randomly tell a stranger his name."

"It's nice to meet you." Taiga slightly tilted his head to the left and beamed at him.

To Juri he seemed innocent and pure enough that he thought there really wouldn't be a problem sharing a desk with Taiga while he passed some time until his appointment tonight.

******

"Good, everyone is here." Kouchi said as he locked the door behind him. "Did everyone leave their phones in the other room? Turned off?"

Juri, Hokuto, Shintarou, and Jesse all nodded.

"We haven't been given much information yet. No direct names and photos for now. You know the protocol, the higher ups are just making sure we don't suddenly get bribed by the other party and mess up the operation." Kouchi said as he handed each of them a micro sd card. "Get to know as much as you can about that musical and the current cast. Another team is still working on narrowing down the targets."

Juri had his hands folded in front of his face as he listened to the rest of Kouchi's explanation. Everything was not that clear yet, they only had to hold a briefing to make sure they block important dates already for their other assignments to not get mixed up on the same days.

"This is a pretty delicate mission as there might be more than one target. One, the illegitimate child that is a threat to our clients position and also… there's a possibility that this might be related to the hacking incident to our system so everyone needs to be careful."

"If the person is a threat to our client, how come he doesn't know the name and how he looked?" Jesse asked as the three of them started tearing up the papers in front of them.

"As I said, it's an illegitimate child. Orphaned and abandoned and so the client has no idea what he looked like and what his name now is."

"This seems pretty upscale to require more than one team. Especially since Juri is already involved in ours." Shintarou pointed out.

"We're not given much information about our clients so I don't know why this seems to be like that. It's possible the hacking incident plays a role in all this."

"Juri, thoughts?" Jesse urged him to speak up. If anyone would have something to say it will always be Juri.

"The higher ups would definitely have reasons they won't disclose to us but it is also quite possible that there's a lot involved here. The hacking incident…" Juri glanced at Kouchi who subtly shook his head making sure the attention of the other three was focused on Juri before doing so. "Hacking our system is a threat to us all."

Juri was the last to leave the hotel room. They have to leave one by one, careful not to be seen too much with each other to avoid suspicions and of course it was part of their protocol. It was a little late in the night already but since Juri felt hungry he decided to drop by the nearest 24 hr diner. Upon entering though it was filled with students who were reviewing for exams, Juri scanned the room as he walked trying to find an empty seat.

“Ah, it’s you again!” Taiga said as Juri passed by his table. “I have an empty seat here, we can share the table if you’d want.” Taiga cleaned up his notes and script to make some room for Juri.

Juri noticed the title printed in the script that Taiga was reading, some lines had highlights and there were quite a few notes scribbled around the pages. It was the same musical title mentioned during their briefing, maybe fate was messing with him but either way this might be an opportunity to get some details out of Taiga so he decided to take him up on his offer.

A waitress approached them not long after Juri took a seat. He placed an order for yakisoba and Taiga asked for a refill for his coffee.

"It's our second time meeting today. Are you still not going to tell me your name?"

Juri thought about it, they were bound to meet one way or another as Taiga was part of the cast of the musical they were supposed to investigate. Maybe getting on his good side would have its perks as well.

"Juri."

Taiga studied and focused on his script while Juri ate his meal. No words were exchanged between the two of them until Juri finished his meal.

"Ah that's right. If you're interested you can come watch our rehearsal!" Taiga wrote down an address and some schedules on a piece of paper. "Just say you're with Kyomoto Taiga, they'll let you in."

"Thanks." Juri folded it and placed it in his pocket. "I'll have to go now."

"Maybe I'll see you around again." Taiga was hopeful and smiled at Juri before he went back to his script.

Juri sent a message to Kouchi. 

**_Need to talk to you now._ **

Kouchi sent him a reply with a code of where they should meet. It was a sleazy love hotel but these types of places rarely asked many questions and would work well for them. They checked the place thoroughly for any bugs or camera before they talked inside the bathroom, leaving their turned off phones in the bed.

Juri told Kouchi about his sudden meeting with Taiga and being invited to come watch the rehearsals. While they both agree that it was an opportunity to gather data, there was a protocol that they followed.

"I told you, another team is currently working in narrowing down the target. But this is a good chance. I'll update you tomorrow if we get a go signal for you to make a move. Do not tell the others for now."

* * *

**Part Two**

Juri received the coded go signal to attend the rehearsals, the other instructions came via a note slipped through his apartment door. He was allowed to go to the rehearsals provided he doesn't make contact with anyone from the other team he might recognize and was told that maybe getting on Taiga's good side might be used to their advantage. He was to give Taiga his burner phone number if a need for it arises at all.

"Oh, hey, it's you." Taiga greeted Juri as he got in line for coffee. "Are you coming today? We could go together." He looked like an innocent child that made his first friend in the way he asked Juri.

Juri couldn't hold back his chuckle. He has never met someone who was as enthusiastic as Taiga seemed to be and how willingly he'd spend time with someone he had just met. "Is it alright to bring coffee there?"

Taiga nodded. "As long as you don't spill it. You'll be seated at the audience seats. We'd appreciate any feedback."

Taiga kept talking about musicals on their way and Juri had no other choice but to listen, he needed to get on Taiga’s good side and possibly telling him that he had no interest in what he was enthusiastically talking about wouldn’t really get him where he wanted. Besides, the way Taiga spoke it was impossible to ignore him. His presence itself felt as though he commanded your attention and the way he lit up talking about this thing he was passionate about made it hard to focus your attention on anything else but him.

As it turns out, Taiga's musical was set to start showing two weeks from now. They were already allowed to hold rehearsals at the theater itself from time to time. Taiga led him to sit at the middle part of the audience section, not bothering to introduce him to anyone.

Scanning the place, Juri was already able to identify a few people that came from the same agency as him but were on a different team. He sat there, trying not to make eye contact with anyone, as he observed the people around as the rehearsals were taking place. Even the chorus and cast had someone from the agency, Juri started to think that maybe this was the legal job of some of them because really just how grandscale could this project be to have so many agents involved?

Juri was not exactly paying much attention to the show itself, he was more immersed in studying the movements of the people around. But then, Taiga came on stage. His singing voice resonating around the theater, Juri's attention suddenly pulled in. Taiga looked effortless, full control of his voice, and suddenly nothing else mattered. Juri's vision blacked everything out and could only see Taiga, bright and shining Taiga. Juri was snapped back to reality when the lights turned off signaling the end of the scene.

During intermission, Taiga was talking with some people on stage. He glanced over at Juri and waved at him. Before Juri could respond, one of the people Taiga was talking to said something to Taiga who started shaking his head while laughing.

Taiga half ran to where Juri was seated when their rehearsals wrapped up. "Hey, thanks for sticking around. I'll just freshen up a little and I'll treat you to a meal."

"Ah, no - "

"I insist." Taiga did not wait for his answer and went backstage.

They went to a nearby ramen shop. Taking counter chair seats instead of a table.

"By the way," Taiga shifted in his seat a little to face Juri. "Do you drink?"

"It's a little early for alcohol. It's 4pm." Juri nudged towards the clock on the wall.

Taiga chuckled. "I'm sorry. That came out wrong. Uhmm… you see the whole production is not allowed to consume alcohol for the duration of the playdates so it's sort of like a tradition of the company to get hammered on liquor before the playdates." Taiga took a notepad from his bag and scribbled something on it. "That's the place where we will be going to this Friday. If you'd want to drop by. It's an open bar."

Juri made a mental note to update Kouchi about this. Taiga has given him some pretty useful information without being asked of. 

"Why are you nice to me?" Juri blurted out his thought as he slipped the note in his jeans pocket.

Taiga raised his shoulders before answering. "I somehow feel at ease with you. And… you seem nice."

_ I'm not. I can kill you in a heartbeat.  _ "Is that so?"

They fell silent again while eating. Juri was thinking of an excuse to slip out while he sent a coded text to Kouchi.

"Thank you for accompanying me today. You can drop by again at rehearsals if you'd like. And also that thing on Friday." Taiga sounded hopeful as he raised the topic of the open bar on Friday again.

"I'm sorry but I'd have to go now."

Taiga nodded. "Take care."

******

"This is actually good information, Juri."

Kouchi, Jesse, Shintarou, and Juri were gathered around the conference room. Juri gave them updates and showed some photos he secretly took using his burner phone before deleting them.

"Maybe the higher ups already know about it. There were quite a handful of other agents there."

"But you didn't engage in any conversation or interaction with them, right?" Kouchi clarified.

"I was too busy familiarizing the faces of everyone there to really engage with anything."

Kouchi let out a sigh. "If opportunities arise, Juri, just say yes to hanging out with Taiga but be careful, okay? He's still part of the list of those being suspected."

"Wasn't it a pretty rookie mistake to use names of the characters from the musical when hacking a system?" Shintarou said. "Or maybe… that person wanted to get caught."

* * *

**Part Three**

Juri went to another one of Taiga's rehearsal. He did not go to all of it to avoid suspicions. And again, Juri lost focus when Taiga was performing on stage. This time, Taiga sat with him in the audience section during their break, handing Juri a water bottle.

"Thoughts so far?"

"Honestly, you were amazing. I really don't have enough knowledge about musicals to comment on anything."

"I understand. Hey, maybe we should exchange contacts. In case you do decide to come on Friday."

If Juri was not good at reading people he could just pass this off as a casual offer. But, Juri was, and he knows that no matter how hard Taiga tries to make it sound like a casual offer, Taiga really wanted to insist that he come on Friday. Juri took out his burner phone and exchanged his contact with Taiga.

"Do you have plans later? I finish here at 3."

Juri shook his head.

"Come with me somewhere later." Taiga was hopeful and fidgeted in his seat from excitement.

A soft laugh escaped Juri, surprising even him with how natural it came out of him. He got so used to faking everything that normal raw reactions like this was a foreign feeling to him.

"I'll wait for you to finish then."

"That's a promise, okay?" Taiga held out his pinky at Juri.

Juri was not one to back away from a promise, he never meant them anyway so there was no hesitation from him and made a pinky swear with Taiga.

Taiga's hair was still dripping when he went to where Juri was seated. He didn't tell him where they were going yet. Taiga just talked about the production staff, there was some information he said that would be helpful to Juri but the rest of it was pretty much nonsense for him.

“Here we are!” Taiga jumped giddy in front of an arcade before pushing Juri inside.

Juri laughed as Taiga forced him inside the arcade. “This is the place you wanted to take me to?”

They stopped in front of the crane machines, Juri turned around to face Taiga who was bumping his index fingers together while biting his lip.

“You just…” Taiga took in a deep breath. “You looked...sad and serious all the time. I just thought maybe it would be good to loosen up a bit.”

Juri chuckled and scratched his nose, he couldn’t really remember the last time he was told to loosen up and he was caught off guard by how much Taiga seemed to have been observing him on the brief encounters they’ve had. “So what do you want to start with?”

“Let’s start with that one!” Taiga pointed at the crane machine that was filled with small stuffed tigers.

Taiga took five turns and won nothing, his smile was now replaced with a pout at his latest failed attempt to catch a baby tiger. Juri was still laughing at Taiga’s reaction as he nudged him to move aside, in just one turn Juri was able to get one.

“Yay!” Taiga raised both his hands in the air as Juri took the stuffed tiger out of the machine, Juri gently pushed it over and over again on Taiga’s cheek while chuckling at Taiga’s reaction.

They played the shooting games next, Taiga lasting longer than Juri predicted he could.

“Why are you so good at this?” Taiga asked a question to which Juri would have to lie his way through instead of giving an honest answer.

They moved from one game to another, except for the basketball hoops as Taiga claimed he was bad at sports and wouldn’t want to risk injuring his wrists with the stage play date approaching and all that. Juri was finding himself enjoying not only the games but also Taiga’s presence, his reactions to everything, his laugh, and just everything about him in general he found himself wishing that Taiga be cleared of suspicions soon so he could just enjoy being in his company. It was not his call to make, especially not now that his judgement is clouded, a first for him. He couldn’t see Taiga as just as subject to get information he needed anymore, for the first time in a really long time he could finally see a person rather than an information source to which he was used to thinking about other people.

* * *

**Part Four**

**_Good morning! See you later tonight :)_ **

The first message Juri opened was from Taiga. He had to make up some excuse yesterday why he wouldn't be able to drop by his rehearsals today. Not that he owed Taiga any explanation at all but he just felt like doing so.

The briefing for tonight's mission required almost everyone to be there, for them to be familiar with who they should avoid too much interaction with. Although they familiarize with each other's faces, they still don't have any knowledge of what the other was assigned to do.

To Juri, it felt like the longest briefing of his career, heck this felt like it was going to be the longest Friday of his life. This mission would greatly reduce the number of people under suspicion, Juri held on to that tiny ray of hope that Taiga would be cleared by the end of the night. He acted indifferent when asked about Taiga so far, no one should pick up that his judgement is somehow clouded or else someone else would get assigned to Taiga tonight.

Juri focused on the briefing at hand for now. The layout of the place was being discussed and their timelines as they should not be entering and exiting the venue all at the same time. Although not everyone was given timelines, Juri and his team didn't have one as they were pretty dependent on the time their buddy target would leave the venue.

Juri kept a pretty calm exterior as he waited at a nearby café for his queue to enter the bar. As soon as he got inside the bar he did a quick scan of the room. He easily spotted Hokuto, who was probably already sweet talking his way to the ladies’ hearts considering how some of them are leaning close to him. Jesse was already a ball with the men playing darts. A few more steps and he was finally able to spot Taiga, seated alone at the bar counter cradling a drink with one hand and his face with the other. Shintarou behind the bar, serving drinks, gave Juri a quick wink.

“Why the long face?” Juri said as he sat down on the empty seat beside taiga, resting his head on his hand mimicking how Taiga looked like.

A smile immediately spread on Taiga’s face when Juri appeared. “You came!”

“I had to. Someone constantly reminded me about it.” Juri noticed that Taiga’s cheeks were turning a shade of pink and he unconsciously touched his face. “How much have you drank already?” Juri’s voice was alarmed, he pulled back his hand before anyone noticed it.

Taiga chuckled. “I’m happy you’re here! You see, I’m not really close with anyone in the company and they all seem to sort of brought someone with them. I don’t know… I’m not very sociable. But hey, you came.”

It was a walk in the park to get Taiga talking about people in his company while he seemed to be half drunk, for someone who claimed he was not close with anyone in particular he sure knew quite a lot about them. Maybe that's what happens when you spend too much time with people, you get to know things about them.

Juri was getting tense. He was wishing the tequila being served to him was actual tequila instead of water. There were things that Taiga was mentioning that could help with their investigation but nothing yet to clear off Taiga of any suspicions.

Taiga started to hiccup and that was Juri's queue to convince him to stop drinking and go home. As much as Juri would want to get more information, he wouldn't really want Taiga to have a massive bitch of a hangover tomorrow.

Juri half carried Taiga out of the bar to get some air. Even when singing drunk Taiga's voice was still intoxicating.

"Wouldn't you get in trouble with your parents if you go home this hammered?" Juri asked as they sat on the streetside.

Taiga's head rested on Juri's shoulder. "That is if I had parents to begin with." He scoffed. "If you find them tell them I really want to meet them."

And it hit Juri. With this new information Taiga is a prime suspect, they were looking for an illegitimate child and Taiga not knowing his parents could fit the frame of an illegitimate child. He wanted to shrug the thought off but he can't, his heart was pounding.

"Do you have your phone with you?"

Taiga took out his phone and unlocked it using his thumbprint.

"I'll book a cab to take you home. Address please?"

Taiga's speech was a little slurry but Juri was able to understand him. It was a struggle getting up the stairs to Taiga's apartment. It didn't help that Taiga suddenly became extra touchy and kept on poking Juri's cheek, tripping on his own feet. Taiga even had the nerve to make Juri guess which of his pockets had his keys, Juri had to do a full body search on him only to find it as a pendant on Taiga's necklace. Apparently he does this when going out to drink for him not to have a hard time getting inside his apartment.

It was just a small studio type apartment, not much furniture. His bed was on the farthest right side and beside it was a desktop set up. There was no television but there was a big cabinet filled with detective conan things and musical related stuff.

Juri laid down Taiga on his bed as he searched for a clean shirt. Taiga rolled around his bed, undoing his pants while complaining how hot it was. Juri was able to catch him before completely falling off the bed, he did not sign up for this but he couldn't find it in his heart to leave Taiga alone in this state.

After getting Taiga in a fresh set of clothes, Juri was finally able to tuck him in his bed. Taiga slept peacefully, his breath even. Juri started snooping around Taiga's room, looking for things that would help in clearing Taiga's name off of the list of suspects. Taiga's computer did not have a password, it was pretty easy for Juri to send coded messages to get Taiga's IP address. He was still holding on to that glimmer of hope that maybe Taiga was just one of the many innocent orphans out there and not the one they were looking for and also, he was hoping that Taiga had nothing to do with the hacking incidents despite his desktop having suspicious applications.

The last one was Taiga's phone, Juri's hand was shaking as he held it. Juri pressed Taiga's thumb on the screen to unlock it. If he believed in gods now would be a good time to pray to every single one of them, but which god exactly would grant the wish of someone who had countless different blood on his hands? There wasn’t much to see in Taiga’s email, just a bunch of subscriptions to magazines and detective Conan related things. His other messages were no use either, just about musicals, rent payments, and utilities payments. Juri was starting to feel relieved until he got to Taiga’s gallery. Juri’s eyes grew wide and his mouth dropped open, his thumb was shaking as he swiped from one photo after another.

Taiga took photos of some other agents secretly, there were even photos that seemed like Taiga was at a stake out outside a certain building taking a photo of a man with a lot of bodyguards, and as he went further there were even secret shots of Hokuto with a lady, Shintarou outside a club, and Jesse in an alleyway and other different places. Juri’s eyes were welling up, why did Taiga have such pictures on his phone? There weren’t any of his or Kouchi’s but still this was something alarming. Juri closed up everything and locked Taiga’s phone again, settling it on the nightstand beside Taiga’s bed.

Juri wanted to get out of there, get some air and try to wrap his head around everything. But Taiga suddenly shifted in his position and snuggled closer to where Juri was seated, wrapping his arms around his waist. Juri gently pulled off Taiga’s arm around him, readjusted him on the bed so he could lie next to him. Juri held Taiga close, letting his head rest on his chest as he gently caressed Taiga’s hair. Why did it have to be Taiga? Of all people, why him? Juri could not conclude anything yet but the evidence he found tonight could pretty much end things.

At the crack of dawn Juri received the message he was dreading the whole night. A coded message for today’s briefing was sent out. It was marked of outmost importance, meaning they would be moving much faster now, meaning the others might have catched on with who their target was already. He held Taiga tighter one last time, planting a kiss on the top of his head before he slipped out of Taiga’s bed.

* * *

**Part Five**

Juri wanted to delay going to the briefing but he knew in himself that it wouldn’t change anything. He made some soup for Taiga before leaving his apartment, leaving behind a note with instructions on it. Juri took a longer route to their meeting place. Trying to calm himself down, get rid of his nerves, and practiced in his head how he was going to try to maintain his composure later.

Everyone else was already there when Juri arrived. Kouchi was presiding over the briefing. Hokuto was seated parallel to Juri, he kept glancing at him and even smirked at Juri at some point. Kouchi proceeded with the briefing, showing everyone who were left on suspicion.

“And lastly, Kyomoto Taiga.”

Taiga’s picture and profile was shown on the screen. Juri clenched his fist that rested on his thigh, he tried to keep a calm exterior and not draw any attention to himself.

“He’s our prime suspect,” Kouchi continued. “Thanks to Juri’s efforts last night. We have enough evidence to safely say it was Kyomoto who infiltrated our system. Further information from various sources also proved that he is also the same person our client is looking for, the illegitimate child who is a threat to his position.”

“Well, wouldn’t this be an easy target for us then?” Hokuto leaned back on his chair. “He trusts Juri. I bet he’d come with Juri anywhere he tells him to go. We won’t even need a big elaborate plan for it.” The tone of Hokuto’s voice sounded like there was something he knew that no one else did, or at least that’s how Juri was interpreting Hokuto’s action and tone right now.

“We still have to be discreet about things.” Kouchi reminded everyone. “We know now who our prime target is but there is no go signal yet from the higher ups to start our move. I’d like to remind everyone not to be reckless with this.” Kouchi was looking at Juri, like what he just said was only directed at him.

When the briefing ended Juri acted the same as always, like there was nothing big they talked about and he cared about nothing at all. He made sure no one was following his move, the surveillance on Taiga would probably increase by now but this was his only window of opportunity, it was tonight or never.

In the dead of night, Juri went to Taiga’s place. He surveyed the whole area first, making sure no one was following him and no one was watching Taiga. Juri knocked on the door five times and Taiga opened it for him. Just like in the note he left this morning, Taiga was dressed in black from head to toe, a fisherman’s hat covering up his blond locks.

The two of them kept changing from one bus after another, any at all that was still available to ride. Juri hasn’t told Taiga anything yet, despite Taiga’s worried expression when Juri steals a glance in his direction Juri still couldn't tell him what’s going on, not until they were at a safe place. They changed into travelling by car but they parked it at a motel they did not even stay at, walking a little more further before taking a motorbike. Taiga was hesitant, he wanted to ask Juri what was going on but then Juri took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Just trust me, Taiga.”

Taiga nodded once and got on the motorbike. They traveled to the middle of nowhere until they arrived at a villa in the middle of a wooded area. This was Juri’s secret base, no one else knew about the existence of this and he was certain nobody was able to follow them all the way here.

“Juri, what’s going on?” Taiga asked as Juri led the way to the living room. “You’re acting weird.”

“You’re safe here. The windows won’t reflect any light from inside or outside this villa so no one would notice if there are lights turned on. Just don’t start a fire at the fireplace.” Juri wasn’t sure yet how to start, he sat down on the sofa massaging his temples.

Taiga sat next to him, worried and uneasy. “Juri, tell me why we’re here? Why we had to go through all that trouble to get here?”

“You tell me, Taiga! Why do you think so?” Juri lost his composure almost immediately and took in deep breaths before speaking again. “What the hell did you get yourself into? Did you know about me? Is that why you approached me?”

Taiga was at a loss. He was confused what Juri was talking about. “I don’t understand. Can you talk straight to me?”

“I saw the pictures in your phone, Taiga. More specifically I snooped around your apartment because I wanted to clear your name of suspicions and now I’m asking you if you know about me? Were you just using me?”

“Are you one of them?” Taiga’s question was genuinely honest, it was straight and he looked Juri directly in his eye. “Are you one of the people out to get me?”

“You don’t know?”

“About you? No. But I do know I’m being watched, by an agency. I was tipped off by someone and so I tried hacking into the system of a certain agency. I had to protect myself. But I swear, Juri.” Taiga reached for Juri’s hand and held it with both of his. “I swear I didn’t know about your involvement in all this.”

Juri wanted to believe him. He closed his eyes and swallowed a lump he didn’t realize already formed in his throat. “I want to believe you. You don’t know how badly I want to believe you but you have Jesse’s and Hokuto’s pictures.”

“I only got to a certain level on the server before they caught on to me. Maybe you’re underestimating where you stand there.”

Juri pulled his hand away from Taiga’s. “Then why the hell did you approach me, Taiga? Are you just using me to possibly get more information, huh?!”

“Me? Using you?! I told you. I knew nothing about you!”

“Then why did you latch yourself to me?!” Juri clenched his jaw. He still hoped that there was a good explanation behind all these.

“Because I was scared!” Taiga raised his voice. “I was scared for my life, Juri. And now that I know you’re part of them I know you wouldn’t understand me. How could you with your bloodied hands, huh? You wouldn’t understand my fear, someone out there wants me dead. I figured if I was always with someone they wouldn’t make their move, I’d probably be killed once I was left alone. If anyone is using anyone between the two of us it's pretty clear that it’s you, you got close to me to get information!”

Juri’s lips slightly parted and he was taking in deep breaths, frustrated with how on point Taiga was. He wouldn’t be able to deny that it started out as an order that’s why he got close to Taiga.

“For all I know you might probably be thinking of killing me off in this secluded villa.” Taiga continued but his voice broke midway and tears welled up in his eyes.

“If I was going to kill you I would have done so already, Taiga.” Juri sighed. “Things are different now. Both of us are on the run and we have to think rationally. We have no one else to trust but each other. Now, Taiga, do you trust me?” Juri held Taiga by the chin to hold eye contact.

Taiga’s face eased up a little before he nodded. “Yes.” He said without any hesitation.

“Aw, ain’t that sweet.” Hokuto was leaning on one of the columns in the living room, holding a gun in one hand which he rested on his shoulder. “But I’m afraid this is how far the two of you could go.”

Juri stood up and pulled Taiga behind him. “What the hell, Hokuto? How did you get here?”

“Oh my dear sweet, Juri. Have you forgotten the times when it was me that you held in your arms?” Hokuto loaded his gun and started walking towards Juri and Taiga. "Order came up. Maybe you weren't as careful as you thought." Hokuto smirked.

Juri was holding on to Taiga’s hand as they circled around the table, away from Hokuto. Juri not taking his eyes off of Hokuto, ready to move at any minute to pull out his own gun, calculating if he would beat Hokuto even if he still needed to load his own.

“You can still make amends here, Juri. I won’t tell anyone about this little fiasco.” Hokuto gestured with his fingers pointing between Juri and Taiga. “We can both leave here unscathed with a beautiful corpse or we do this the hard way.” Hokuto pointed his gun at Juri, his eyes were dark. There was no sign of Hokuto wavering or backing out of this, his face clearly showed his determination.

“Run.” Juri let go of Taiga’s hand. “Run! Taiga!”

Taiga was startled and took him a few seconds before he could do as he was told, Juri following close with his eyes still on Hokuto. He was almost at the door when he heard a gunshot and Juri’s body fell on his back. Taiga looked back and fell down to his knees, he held Juri’s body, a bullet latched on Juri’s throat. Juri’s body was shaking, he reached out and cupped Taiga’s face with his hand, weakly, before letting it fall on his side.

“Juri!” Taiga cried out.

Hokuto’s shadow hovered over them, he wasn’t shaken at all that he just shot Juri and this time pointed the gun directly at Taiga’s head.

Taiga had no more strength in him, he just sat on the floor cradling Juri’s body.

“I’m sorry. But you know too much.” Without a hint of hesitation, Hokuto pulled the trigger.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for taking time to read this. It warms my heart that someone out there took time to read my work. I am open to suggestions and comments. A kudos would make me smile knowing that someone out there liked what I put out :)
> 
> If you want to talk or have any suggestions or requests hit me up at Twitter @geeelatinnn
> 
> If you'd like to help a struggling writer out, you can buy me coffee https://ko-fi.com/geeelatinnn it will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!


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